Obama election added to state curriculum

When he overhauled California’s Byzantine school financing structure last year, Gov. Jerry Brown declared that schools and parents, not lawmakers and bureaucrats, should control education.

What’s happened in the year since then? Well, nature and politicians both abhor a vacuum. The Legislature has churned out more laws prescribing what schools must do. Yes, some of its goals are noble, and some laws are even needed.

Then there’s Assemblyman Chris Holden‘s AB 1912, recommending that California school kids learn about the election of Barack Obama and the significance of his being the first African-American president.

The Legislature passed the Pasadena Democrat’s bill almost unanimously, recommending the subject to state curriculum writers. Brown — who last year said his principle of “subsidiarity” is violated “when distant authorities prescribe in minute detail what is taught, how it is taught and how it is to be measured” — signed the bill.